Recently, my program requested that we all sit down and listen to a lecture by Jacob Vossestein, a Dutch cultural anthropologist who works as a cross-cultural trainer. I didn’t know that job existed, and now I covet it. But that’s another story. I was excited about this lecture, as he would be talking about the Dutch culture. I’m a sociology major who wishes she were an anthropology major but couldn’t face the prospect of a second semi-useless major. So I looked forward with a fair amount of excitement to his talk. I was not disappointed- he was funny, knowledgeable and eager to let our questions dictate the flow of his lecture. He discussed the Dutch history in Africa, the issue of racism in modern Dutch culture, traditional Dutch customs (Zwarte Piet and Sinterklaas in particular – did you know that the tradition stems from the 1300s? That’s before the Dutch colonized any part of Africa) and a bit about Dutch humor. He explained the European attitude toward America (a topic I always find fascinating, since the American views of their own country are often at odds with international perceptions of the good ole US of A), and said, I quote approximately, “The Europeans consider America our child run wild. Quite wild these days! When we Europeans say bad things about America, it’s not because we hate it but because we love it so much and want it to be better!”
I felt that his lecture was quite informative, especially that last bit about how Dutch criticisms aren’t mean-spirited, but flowing from a place of love rather than distaste. Jacob Vossestein has written a book called Dealing with the Dutch. I haven’t read it yet, but if you’re planning on visiting the Netherlands or just want a Dutch anthropologist’s insight into his own culture, you might want to check it out.
Also, I went up to him afterward to tell him how much I’d enjoyed his talk and when I mentioned that I was a sociology major, he told me I looked like one. I peer into my mirror daily to try to spot the tattletale sociology-major signs now.